The Great Sphinx: The History Of Ancient Egypt

Architecture and art plays a major role in exhibiting and reiterating the histories of ancient world. In relation to the Ancient Near East, the Great Sphinx serves this purpose. To the south of the Khafre pyramid in Giza near Cairo, there sits a huge creature at the depression with the body of a lion but with a human head. This monumental statue, which is the initial true colossal imperial sculpture, is identified as the Great Sphinx. It serves as a national emblem of Egypt both modern and ancient. For centuries, the Great Sphinx has stirred the imagination of tourists, adventurers, scholars and poets while inspiring a wealth of speculation concerning the secrets behind it, its meaning and age. Notably, the term sphinx means strangler
Based on geological considerations by Lubicz Schwaller and supported by Schoch Robert, the extreme erosion exhibited on the Great Sphinx’s body could not be a result of pure sand and water as it has been assumed by most geologists worldwide rather it was because of water. Geologists also confirm that Egypt in the distant past was mostly subjected to intense flooding. Furthermore, wind erosion cannot occur if the body of the Great Sphinx is covered up in sand, which has been its condition for almost five thousand years since its construction. If the wind was responsible for its erosion, then similar effects should be expected in other monuments in Egypt that were constructed using similar materials as that of the Great Sphinx. As a matter of fact, the structures, which were constructed using similar materials, have been exposed to the blowing of sand by wind though they do not exhibit minimal effects of wind erosion as the sand only did minimal scouring and cleaning of the stones. Thus, the extreme erosion evidenced on the Great Sphinx can be used in geological and environmental studies of ancient
Apparently, the purpose of the construction of the Great Sphinx is unknown. However, there are varying perspectives that attempt to explain it. Some orthodox archeologists believed that it functioned as a talisman or it was the memorial of a Pharaoh. Other scholars believed that it functioned as a device for astronomical observation. After every two thousand, one hundred and sixty years, the astronomical shape changed since precession of the equinox, the sun during the spring equinox rises alongside the stellar of a diverse constellation. In the past two thousand years, the constellation was observed to be the fish, which symbolized the Christian age. Prior to the Pisces age was that of Aries the ram as the one before was that of Taurus the Bul. In addition, the first and second periods BC, during the age of Aries, iconography that was ram-oriented was common in the Egypt dynasty. Therefore, it is possible that the builders of the Great Sphinx utilized astronomical symbols in designing the